Very helpful conversation with Taylor customer service. In another thread the comment was made that the sensors need only touch the bridge saddle lightly. Taylor echoed this, and suggested:
1. Back off each allen screw until it moves with almost no effort
2. Begin turning the allen screw clockwise until you feel it tap the sensor - sometimes it helps to reverse and do it a second time to get the feel of a slight touch
3. Set the ES2 bass and treble knobs at 12 o'clock [this is VERY important so that your tone is uncolored]
4. Take any pedals out of your signal chain and plug directly into your amp or PA - again, so that you're working only with the output of the ES2 with no added color or gain
5. Strum through some chords up the neck...fingerpick...play scales...whatever your style may be, and adjust the allen screws in 1/8 turn increments until you get your desired tone
6. After that you can add your pedals back into the signal chain
FWIW, I swear by the LR Baggs Session for adding warmth and compression:
https://www.lrbaggs.com/preamps-di/session-di-acoustic-guitar-preampHope this helps!
BTW, I won't be replacing the ES2 with an aftermarket pickup
